Spirited Away: Secret of the Half-Blood
by clocks-and-cages
Summary: They call her. Chihiro hears them in her dreams. Nothing has been the same since she left their world - mortality no longer seems right. She belonged there. Then, one night, when she answers their calls for help, she finds herself once again among the spirits and begins to uncover the secrets of why her presence fits in their world just a bit too well.
1. Prologue

(NOTE: I do not own Spirited Away or any of its characters, quotes, ideas, etc.)

"A human! You're in trouble; you're the one everyone's looking for!"

Chihiro's heart sank as she shrank back against the wall, her limbs suddenly feeling heavier than the coal that had been deposited at her feet. That was it, then – it was all over. She would be taken to the witch and turned into a pig, just like her parents. All that bravery that she had mustered up, all the mysterious kindness given to her by Haku… wasted. She looked at the young women with wide eyes, waiting for her to do something. Apparently, though, the young woman was also waiting. They stood there for a long moment, frozen, watching each other and waiting.

"She's my granddaughter."

It was Kamaji who broke the tense silence, though casually enough. Chihiro's eyes widened in confusion as she whipped her head around to face the boiler man. What she had heard couldn't possibly have been correct. The young woman seemed startled, as well, eyes growing round with disbelief. "Granddaughter?"

Kamaji went on to tell the young woman something about work, and then Yubaba, but Chihiro was still lost in the word granddaughter. What had he meant? Was he trying to make up an excuse of some sort? A secret explanation, perhaps? There had to be some method to the six-legged man's madness.

"Come on."

The young woman snapped Chihiro suddenly out of her thoughts, and she struggled to climb out of the pile of coal and back into reality (it couldn't be too far away, could it?). The worry dissolved quickly enough, replaced by anxieties of traveling through the bathhouse among the spirits and meeting the witch. Still, somewhere, the thought lingered.

_Granddaughter?_


	2. Chapter 1: The Call

_Sen._

(Most of them never had learned her real name, had they? In her sleep, she almost smiled.)

_Sen. Sen. Sen. Listen to us, Sen. You have to come back. Please._

(Images flashed. Scales shifted and glided beneath her open palms, a baby whined in her ear, rain whispered on the ground. She could see the Yubaba's elegant decorations, Kamaji's long, spindly arms, Lin's disapproving glare. The ocean sparkled under the sun, blood splattered against an ornate carpet.)

_Chihiro._

(This was the voice that always seemed loudest, the one that she knew the best. It was soft and careful and guarded, but somehow it seemed warmly familiar as well. Someone was holding her hand, cool fingers intertwined with hers. Tall grasses pushed against her legs.)

_It's been four years, Chihiro. You won't last much longer. Please, come back._

(The hand was slipping away. Something inside of her gasped, tearing at her chest. She cringed.)

_You're dying, Chihiro. You can't stay there. Come back. Please, come ba-_

Chihiro's eyes snapped open. The sheets were cool and damp with the humidity of the summer air, clinging to her sweaty skin. Moonlight filtered through the grime on her window, illuminating the dust floating through her air before falling onto the worn wooden floorboards of her bedroom. Outside, everything was still.

It had only been a dream. Chihiro had been having a lot of those lately – she heard them calling to her. Turning on her mattress, she reached out and felt along the surface of her bedside table until her hand brushed against something soft and cool. Her shimmering pink hairband. Her fingers closed around it tightly, feeling along the silken edges, and something within her relaxed slightly.

It was strange to think that it had been four years since she had left the spirit world. She had been just a little girl back then – eleven years old, whiny and complaining, oblivious. And yet, despite all that had changed in those four years, she could still remember their world as if she had just visited it yesterday. She could feel the heat of the boiler room and vividly recall the sharpness of Yubaba's nails. She supposed it wasn't that unusual to forget such a fantastical experience, but still she wondered at how she could clearly remember even the tiniest details of her journey.

Her eyes wandered toward the digital clock near her outstretched hand. 1:37 AM. She heaved a great sigh before swinging her legs over the side of her bed while tying her hair up like she had when she was younger. Her appearance hadn't changed much since back then – she was still relatively short and incredibly scrawny, though her hair had grown longer. Chihiro hesitated, glancing at the stained waitress uniform thrown carelessly at the foot of her bed. She had work the next morning. Still, it wasn't like she was going back to sleep anytime soon. A quick walk couldn't hurt.

Shoving her feet into a pair of old shoes and shrugging on a sweatshirt, she padded past her parents' bedroom and through the rickety screen door out into the crisp night. The grass slid beneath her feet, damp with dew, but she hardly minded. Their house was the last one on the street, and it was easy enough for her to sneak through the yard and make the small leap off the concrete wall that lifted their street off of the hill. The ground was slick, though, and she ended up crashing onto her elbows and sliding down a few feet before her heels dug into the mud enough to stop her descent.

Chihiro lay there for a moment, breathing heavily, before climbing back to her feet and gradually continuing her journey down the hill until she reached the tiny houses that she had asked her mother about so many years ago. She stroked one as she passed it, fingers brushing along the icy surface, and then continued along the road and into the woods. The silence was almost deafening, but Chihiro was used to it – she had, after all, made this same journey many times before.

The walk wasn't a long one. She soon arrived at the old building her father had once declared to be fake, passing through it with a great deal more bravery than she had her first visit. Her footsteps echoed, the sound bouncing off the walls and making her feel all the more alone despite the way the building groaned its greeting. It was all very familiar – she passed by the stones that marked the dried up river, passed through the empty shops of the town. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine the shadow people lurking behind counters, watching her. She could almost see Yubaba's bird circling above.

_Sen._

It was a sigh on the wind, and Chihiro blinked her eyes open, frowning. She could have sworn she heard Lin, calling to her. Her imagination, surely. Chihiro continued down to the bridge that led to the bathhouse, running her hand over the railing. The train tracks beneath it were empty, and she sighed, leaning up against the wooden frame.

_Sen._

Chihiro's head whipped up. It was Yubaba's voice that time, cruel and yet somehow desperate at the same time. She was certain she had heard it, but the old spirit was nowhere in sight.

_You've been away for too long, Chihiro. It's time for you to come home._

Haku. Chihiro's eyes widened. Suddenly she felt something in her chest expand, filling her up and making her feel complete for the first time in ages. The world around her seemed to flicker like an old movie – in one moment she could see the silver and cerulean hues of the silent night, and in the next there was a warm scarlet emitting from the lanterns and the quiet sound of footsteps, and then back to the night. Chihiro blinked, jerking back, and was startled when she bumped into someone only to pass right through them a split second later.

_Concentrate. Remember._

Kamaji's voice rasped through her mind, clear as day. Heart pounding, Chihiro squeezed her eyes shut, calling up every memory she had of the spirit world. The boiler, the radish spirit, a mouse on her shoulder, No Face. Someone bumped into her, but the footsteps were still flickering in and out of existence.

_Hurry. You cannot remain in this state much longer._

"I'm trying, Kamaji," Chihiro whispered. She harshly forced herself back into those memories, morphing them around herself, tasting the river spirit's bitter medicine and listening to the running water of the bathhouse. She sucked in a deep breath, fingers curling as she remembered the feel of Haku's hand slotted into hers.

Someone shoved her forward, and Chihiro stumbled forward, eyes flying open as she desperately wind-milled her arms to stop her descent. Voices came from all around, and another person roughly shoved her forward. For a moment she stood there, not quite comprehending. The lanterns were lit and there were people in robes, people with masks. The bathhouse swarmed with activity.

The person in front of her stopped suddenly, then, spinning around and eyeing her with disbelief. It was a toad, a worker at the bathhouse. His mouth dropped open.

"A human!" he accused, the intensity of his voice causing Chihiro to stumble back a few steps.

So it was really happening, then. She shoved past the toad, squirming through the crowd and ignoring the shouts that followed her. Someone tried to grab her by her sweatshirt. Chihiro shrieked, yanking away before continuing to run. She flew off the path as soon as the bridge ended, ducking down into the small servant's entrance and passing through the barnyard into the inner courtyard, where she crouched beneath the rose bush trying to catch her breath and comprehend all that was happening. This wasn't right – she wasn't supposed to ever come back.

Someone's hand landed on her shoulder. Chihiro yelped, spinning around to face the stranger. Her eyes met startling green set into a pale face, and she froze.

"Haku," she whispered.

_Well done, granddaughter._


	3. Chapter 2: The Warning

(Note: This chapter was a bit difficult for me to write, so I apologize for the shorter length. Hopefully it will pick up a bit after this ^^ Also, thank you so much for the reviews. I really appreciate them, and if you have any suggestions/characters you want to see, just let me know!)

It wasn't an entirely foreign situation to her, despite how incredibly otherworldly it was. It wasn't the first time she had entered the spirit world by accident. It wasn't the first time she had fled that pridge. It wasn't the first time she had hunched beneath that rosebush with Haku's hand on her shoulder while spirits panicked within the bathhouse.

Only last time, Haku had actually been relatively kind to her.

"Chihiro," he hissed, fingers curling painfully into her shoulder. "What are you doing here?! Don't you remember me telling you _not to look back?_ If Yubaba gets her hands on you again… you idiot. You _idiot._ Do you know how hard it was for me to get you home the first time?"

"W…what?" Chihiro blinked at him, her head still spinning. What had happened to the nice Haku, the one willing to do anything to get her back? The one who softened whenever she was scared and who protected her from the evil lurking behind every corner? "Haku, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… I mean, I did mean to, but I didn't think… weren't you calling me?"

Haku's emerald eyes narrowed dangerously. "Of course not. Chihiro, this is the last place you should be right now. You need to go home immediately."

"I… I don't know how, Haku," she was fifteen years old, and yet she still felt the tears pressing up against the back of her eyes. With some difficulty she managed to swallow them down, but they remained as an ache in her chest. "I'm not even sure how I got here."

Haku's grip on her shoulder loosened slightly as he glanced back through the branches toward the silhouettes projected onto the screen door behind them. "Something is happening," he murmured, frowning. "You were never supposed to return." Turning back to Chihiro, he finally let go and gazed at her with an intensity that scared her. "Listen to me, Chihiro. Yubaba still has the ability to turn you into an animal, and she will not take you on as a worker again. You cannot hide from her, which leaves only one remaining option – you must persuade her that you can be of use to her as a human. Do you understand?"

Chihiro nodded, but grasped onto his arm tightly as he shifted to go. "Wait! Haku, I can't face her alone. Not… not this soon. I'm so scared – I don't know what's happening. It's all happening too quickly. Please, _please_ come with me."

Haku paused, and his stony expression finally softened. Chihiro felt relief coursing through her at the sight. "I cannot come with you, Chihiro," he said quietly. "Go see Kamaji. I'm sure he'll be able to help you."

"Kamaji is bound to the boiler room. He can't come with me."

"Neither can I, though, Chihiro," Haku said seriously. "I have places I must go to. I'm afraid you will have to face Yubaba on your own. You'll be fine, though – it's not like this will be the first time."

"Where are you going?" Chihiro asked, eyes wide.

"To figure this out," Haku replied, gently prying her fingers off his arm. "Go, Chihiro. You'll be okay. I promise."

He again made a move to leave, and again Chihiro stopped him. "She'll steal my name!"

Haku sighed impatiently. "She can only steal your name if she signs you under contract. You'll have to be very clever, Chihiro, but I have faith in you."

Chihiro pressed her lips together, unable to think of anymore arguments. "Just… just promise you'll come back, okay?" she whispered.

Haku smiled, though it was tilted and didn't reach his eyes. "I promise," he nodded once, and in one swift motion was gone.

Chihiro remained underneath the rose bush for a few moments longer, trying to gather her thoughts. If Haku hadn't been calling her, then who had? She would have sworn on her life the voice was Haku's. And then there was Lin, and Kamaji, and even Yubaba. She'd heard them – she was certain of it. And yet, Haku had seemed so horrified by her presence in the spirit world. What was happening? Why did he think it was so dangerous for her to be there? _This is the last place you should be right now._ What had he meant? What kind of trouble was she in?

Chihiro sucked in a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before quickly crawling through the courtyard to the familiar stairway that led to the boiler room. She stared down the length of wooden steps nervously. Had it really been this high last time? And the steps this steep? She couldn't help but remember her very first descent, during which one of the steps had broken beneath her. She swallowed, leaning heavily against the wall for a moment and trying to calm her fluttering heart. Of course, the hesitation only seemed to make things worse, so she forced herself down the first few steps before she could change her mind.

The wooden planks creaked beneath her, but didn't give. She tried to distract herself by looking out at the beautiful view offered to her, but it only made her think of how high up she was, so she concentrated on not shaking instead. After what seemed like an eternity she reached the bottom step and stumbled down to the corner, dropping to her knees and heaving in great breaths. Above her the window was cracked open, spilling light out over her. Voices drifted from within.

"… absolutely certain? All humans look alike to me. It must have been a mistake."

"It was no mistake. That human was Sen – she's back."

Chihiro froze, her breath catching in her chest. She'd been recognized.

"If it was Sen… this is horrible. She shouldn't be here, not now. She'll get us all killed!"

"The poor girl. Yubaba will have us roast her without a second thought."

"It's her or us."

"Still. She was a good kid."

Chihiro, feeling sick, shakily stood and slipped away before she could hear anymore. Her head was spinning. _She'll get us all killed!_ What had happened while she was away that made her suddenly so dangerous? The panicked look in Haku's eyes, the fear in their voices… it was all adding up to something terrifying, something she didn't even want to think about.

Kamaji. Kamaji would have the answers for her. He always did.


	4. Chapter 3: The Boiler Room

**(Another short chapter, and I apologize for that. I also apologize for this extremely long wait - I'll try to update more quickly in the future, I promise!)**

The boiler room had been one of Chihiro's least favorite places in the spirit world. Perhaps her discomfort in the room was due to the alienation she first received in it, or later the disaster that had struck when she held a dying Haku in her arms. She cringed at the very memory, trying not to think about the way his blood had stained her arms scarlet. He had been fine and she'd known that, but it was still painful for her to think about.

Normally her love of the boiler man neutralized those feelings, but she couldn't help but suddenly feel herself dread speaking to him. It wasn't that she didn't like Kamaji - the boiler man had been a guiding light to her during her first visit. But he possessed potentially dreadful knowledge she wasn't sure she wanted to hear. Whatever he had to tell her, it couldn't be good. She could already feel the heat radiating from within as she crept toward the doorway, thick and abrasive against her skin. Chihiro tried to welcome the light instead of feel repelled from it.

_(She wanted to hide. She wanted to flee. But what was left for her? A world where she didn't belong? Parents who didn't understand, friends who drifted away? Not even the danger that seemed to lurk in every shadow could drive Chihiro from the place of bright colors and magic and beauty. Some distant part of her, ignored by her true conscious, knew it was home.)_

Chihiro entered the room with her eyes lowered, hands trembling. She was years older than she had been, but still she felt fear searing through her veins just as painfully as it had when she was a child blindly searching for sense and reason in a world where none existed. "Kamaji," her whisper was hoarse and wavering, so she cleared her voice and tried again. "Kamaji... it's Sen." She remembered Haku's panicked face when he first found her. Kamaji was different, but would he too be horrified by her return? Something had happened since she'd left, and it had turned her into an enemy of the spirits. She could feel it thrumming within her, a sixth sense she'd had ever since she left. Something was wrong.

When the boiler man didn't respond, Chihiro frowned and raised her gaze to meet his, forcing herself to be strong and steady. Her attempts immediately crumbled at what she saw, heart flying against her ribcage and breath suddenly trapping itself in her lungs.

The boiler man was gone.

"Kamaji?" she whispered, taking a few steps forward and gazing into the jaws of the boiler as they snapped open and shut. What had happened to the six armed man and his enchanted soot servants? Suddenly the place she had once dreaded seemed cozy in comparison to the emptiness that greeted her. The place looked abandoned, bits of coal scattered on the ground as if the little creatures had been on their way to depositing it and simply vanished. Kamaji's table had on it a half eaten tray of food. Swallowing hard, Chihiro stepped through the coal and over to the table. Orders for water hung like dead spiders before it, and when Chihiro looked up she noticed one of the drawers above was open, as if the boiler man had just been reaching inside to retrieve some ingredient when he poofed into thin air.

It didn't make any sense. Kamaji was bound to the boiler room. He couldn't have left, even if he had wanted to, which Chihiro wasn't sure he did despite all his complaining. Work had seemed to be a part of Kamaji's life. And even if he had someone broken free, where would he have gone? He gave Chihiro his train tickets. There was nowhere else for the boiler man to work. It was as if he had been made for his job, a key that could only fit into that one particular keyhole. Chihiro couldn't imagine him anywhere else.

Some papers were scattered on top of the table. Chihiro didn't mean to cry, but for some reason they called to her - she leaned forward slightly, gazing down at them, and was startled to see her name scrawled over an envelope. _Sen._ She hesitated only a moment before snatching it up and turning the paper over. It wasn't a letter from the boiler man explaining everything and telling her it would be alright, as she had hoped. Instead there were simply three words written in messy handwriting, as if the writer had been in a hurry.

_Things have changed._

She'd just barely finished scanning over the last word, trying to comprehend, when she heard a sound from behind her. Chihiro spun around, expecting to have to face whatever terrible force had taken Kamaji away from her. She'd done many terrifying things in the spirit world before. She was willing to fight for her lost friend. Instead of seeing some horrifying beast, though, she found herself staring into Lin's hollow expression.

Lin had been one of Chihiro's closest friends in the spirit world. She'd looked after her like an older sister, and helped her find her way through the working world. While she could sometimes be greedy and a bit shallow, she was a part of Chihiro's spirit family, and she'd come to respect her, as Lin had come to care for Chihiro. Now, however, she remained at a distance, her gaze similar to Haku's only with a lack of intensity. Chihiro went cold. She'd thought that when she returned, people would welcome her with open arms. Why were they suddenly treating her like a timebomb?

They remained like that for a few moments, watching each other almost warily, before Chihiro finally managed to force herself to speak. "He's gone."

Lin's expression caved slightly. She looked past Chihiro at the empty work table and then at the coal scattered on the ground, looking like she was forcing herself to take in every painful difference. "I know."


End file.
